Public Services and Procurement Canada
Responses to parliamentary committees and external audits: 2018 to 2019 Departmental Results Report
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Government response to the 15th report of the Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates
Report
Government response
Summary
On October 31, 2017, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Government Operations and Estimates undertook a study of federal procurement on how to improve access to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) and Indigenous businesses. In the course of its study, the committee held 16 meetings, heard from 70 witnesses and received 13 briefs.
The committee's study reviewed the federal government procurement process and outlined the main challenges of the current procurement process along with the principal barriers preventing SMEs, women-owned and Indigenous businesses from accessing federal contracts.
In its report presented to the House of Commons on June 20, 2018, the committee made 40 recommendations to improve the federal government procurement process. The committee pointed to 5 main challenges with the current system:
- the complexity of the federal procurement process
- the use of misaligned procurement approaches
- the focus on price, to the detriment of qualifications and quality when selecting contractors and suppliers
- the need to make federal procurement more inclusive for SMEs, women-owned businesses and other socially disadvantaged groups
- the failure of the Procurement Strategy for Aboriginal Business to live up to its potential and its need for improvement
The government response to Report 15, Modernizing Federal Procurement for Small and Medium Enterprises, Women-Owned and Indigenous Businesses, signed by the then-titled Minister of Public Services and Procurement, was presented to the committee on October 18, 2018.
Government response to the 53rd report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts
Report
Government response
Summary
In the spring of 2018, the Office of the Auditor General of Canada (OAG) released a performance audit whose purpose was to determine whether Public Services and Procurement Canada "effectively and efficiently managed and oversaw the implementation of the new Phoenix pay system."
On June 14, 2018, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts (the committee) held a hearing on this audit. Similarly to the OAG Audit, the committee stated that "…the development and implementation of the Phoenix pay system was an incomprehensible failure."
In its report presented to the House of Commons on November 19, 2018, the committee made 6 recommendations—4 to Public Services and Procurement Canada, one to the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat and one to the Government of Canada.
Specifically, the committee recommended the following 6 items be reported on:
- the project management system for Government of Canada information technology projects
- the 4 milestones that will be integrated into the approval documentation for government-wide projects
- the changes made to guidance and policies respecting independent reviews and the decision-making processes that determine the specific points subject to independent reviews
- the new instruments in the information technology project management framework
- the new initiatives concerning internal audits of government-wide information technology projects
- the opportunities to improve the accountability regime
The government response to report 53, entitled: Report 1, Building and Implementing the Phoenix Pay System, of the 2018 Spring Reports of the Auditor General of Canada, was signed by the then-titled Minister of Public Services and Procurement and presented to the committee on March 19, 2019.
Government response to the 58th report of the Standing Committee on Public Accounts
Report
Government response
Summary
In the spring of 2018, the OAG released a performance audit whose objective was to determine "whether selected federal organizations disposed of surplus goods and equipment at the appropriate time in a manner that maximized benefits. These benefits include selling assets for the best possible return, reusing or refurbishing assets that were still in good condition, donating assets to organizations that could benefit from them, and disposing of assets in an environmentally sustainable way." The federal organizations selected for study were the Canada Revenue Agency, Public Services and Procurement Canada, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, and Shared Services Canada, based on their size and level of GCSurplus usage.
On November 5, 2018, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Public Accounts held a hearing on this audit. The committee concluded that the federal organizations selected by the OAG for this audit "did not always dispose of surplus goods and equipment in a manner that maximized benefits. The incentives to sell surplus assets outweighed other methods, such as reusing, refurbishing, and donating."
The committee was concerned upon learning that the OAG was "unable to conclude on whether the selected federal organizations disposed of surplus goods and equipment at the appropriate time because organizations did not maintain sufficient documentation."
The committee made the following 4 recommendations in its report presented to the House of Commons on February 6, 2019, to help ensure that federal organizations improve their management of surplus assets. The committee request that the implicated departments submit a report outlining their revised:
- asset life-cycle processes, including procurement, to facilitate and encourage the transfer and reuse of assets
- internal processes to facilitate the donation of surplus assets
- policies regarding keeping sufficient documentation to justify the disposal methods that they selected, standardizing their forms to ensure consistency, and considering all factors when making disposal decisions, such as disposal cost, asset value, and environmental impact
- their revised policies regarding the development and implementation of a new service for federal organizations to better encourage the donation and reuse of assets across government
The government response to report 58, entitled: Report 1, Building and Implementing the Phoenix Pay System, of the 2018 Spring Reports of the Auditor General of Canada, was signed by the then-titled Minister of Public Services and Procurement and presented to the committee on June 6, 2019.
Government response to the 14th report of the Standing Committee on Official Languages
Report
14th report entitled: Issues Related to French-Language Training in the Field of Nursing
Government response
Summary
In 2015, the provincial and territorial regulatory bodies responsible for the nursing profession in Canada, except the one for Quebec, adopted the National Council Licensure Examination (NCLEX-RN). The NCLEX-RN is an exam that registered nurses must pass in order to practice nursing in Canada (outside of Quebec). It "replaced the bilingual Canadian exam, which was created a long time ago by the Canadian Nurses Association." The provinces and territories chose the NCLEX-RN because it was available in electronic form.
In May 2017, the House of Commons Standing Committee on Official Languages became aware that nursing graduates who choose to take the NCLEX-RN in French have a much higher rate of failure than those who take it in English.
Although regulating nursing falls to the provinces and territories, this issue is of interest to the committee. The committee plays an oversight role in advancing the official languages.
The committee put for the following recommendations in their report which was presented to the House of Commons on November 21, 2018:
- that the federal Minister of Health
- with provincial and territorial counterparts commit to finding solutions to the active offer of health services in both official languages and to make professional bodies aware of the needs of official language minority communities in terms of access to health professionals, including nurses able to offer services in the minority language
- ensure that bilateral agreements on health include enforceable language clauses that, through the transfer of federal funds, meet official language minority communities needs
- that Health Canada
- require that the studies conducted by the Canadian Institute for Health Information include linguistic variables in order to collect solid data on the health of official language minority communities and ensure that sampling reflects these communities; and
- provide the Consortium national de santé en français with the funding necessary to coordinate–in partnership with the affected francophone post-secondary institutions in its network and student associations–the development of the tools needed to improve the success rate for francophone registered nurses who take the NCLEX-RN exam in French
- that Public Services and Procurement Canada
- in partnership with Health Canada, propose to the Canadian Council of Registered Nurse Regulators that it coordinate all translations or adaptations of the NCLEX-RN and preparatory materials with the Government of Canada's Translation Bureau
The government response to the 14th report entitled: Issues Related to French-Language Training in the Field of Nursing, was co-signed by the then-titled Minister of Public Services and Procurement and presented to the committee on June 6, 2019.
Government response to the 32nd report of the Standing Senate Committee on National Finance
Report
32nd report entitled: The Phoenix Pay Problem–Working Toward a Solution (PDF, 2.8MB)
Government response
Summary
The Standing Senate Committee on National Finance held 8 meetings with 28 witnesses, including the Auditor General of Canada, union representatives, departments and agencies, officials from IBM, the Minister of Public Services and Procurement and the Clerk of the Privy Council. The committee also visited the Public Service Pay Centre office in Miramichi, New Brunswick.
The committee's report presented to the Senate on July 31, 2018 outlines the following 5 recommendations:
- the government should support its employees by identifying priorities for processing outstanding pay requests and establishing targets for the time to process these requests
- the government should also assess whether it has sufficient compensation advisors and human resources staff, and whether they have adequate training
- to ensure continued accountability and transparency, the government should report annually on the costs associated with the Phoenix pay system
- in the medium term, the government should examine whether departments with complex pay requirements, such as shift work, might be better served by alternative solutions, rather than a centralized pay system
- in the longer term, the government should explain to Parliament the options it is considering to replace Phoenix, the costs of these options, and how it intends to avoid repeating the mistakes of the Phoenix pay system
The government response to the 32nd report entitled: The Phoenix Pay Problem – Working Toward a Solution, was signed by the then-titled Minister of Public Services and Procurement and presented to the committee on February 22, 2019.
Government response to the 27th report of the Standing Senate Committee on internal economy, budgets and administration
Reports
- 27th Report of the Advisory Working Group on the Parliamentary Translation Services (PDF, 233KB)
- Report from the Translation Bureau to the Advisory Working Group on Parliamentary Translation Services (PDF, 225MB)
Government response
Summary
On September 21, 2017, the Advisory Working Group on the Parliamentary Translation Services was established. The advisory working group was given the mandate to review the Service Agreement for Language Services with the Translation Bureau of Public Services and Procurement Canada in order to improve the service level and the quality of the translation and interpretation services offered to the Senate.
In its report presented to the Senate on March 15, 2018, the committee made a number of recommendations to address concerns around the inconsistency and quality control of translation, errors in translation and differences between the 2 language versions of committee reports.
The Translation Bureau fully collaborated with the Advisory Working Group on Parliamentary Translation Services. Representatives of the Translation Bureau met 3 times with the working group and presented a series of measures to improve the quality of its services. These measures focused on strengthening the relationship between the bureau and the Senate through a personalized approach and on the importance of a timely feedback process for handling complaints. The Translation Bureau presented a report to the advisory group on March 20, 2018.
The government response to the 27th report of the Advisory Working Group on the Parliamentary Translation Services was signed by the then-titled Minister of Public Services and Procurement and presented to the committee on October 5, 2018.Document navigation for "Responses to parliamentary committees and external audits: 2018 to 2019 Departmental Results Report"
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